Page 19 of Tight Spot

Basically, I had shit to do except consider another workout and wait.

Seven thirty. Four and a half hours away. Too damn far away and much too close.

“Shit,” I muttered.

Workout it was because I needed something to burn off the adrenaline a simple phone call created. No way I was using my hand. Not before I met her.

* * *

Reservation made, and another shower taken, I was fifteen minutes early for my meeting with Hailey at an upscale Italian restaurant in Brentwood. Dressed in charcoal dress pants and a light blue T-shirt, I’d taken the time to clean up my beard and sideburns, but left my hair down. My staple black hair band was on my wrist, right next to my old-school Seiko black watch. I’d been able to reserve a private party room at the back of Valentina’s Italiana but as I leaned back in my chair, I had a straight shot view of the hostess stand through the small restaurant.

Which meant I knew the exact second Hailey walked in. She’d paused outside the restaurant’s front window, peered in. Stepped through the door and glanced down at her phone. Right on time, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she waited a few minutes.

She didn’t though. A few seconds later and the door to the restaurant opened and she swept in, shoulders back, and strolled to the hostess as if she owned the place.

Long, tan legs were visible until they disappeared beneath a mid-thigh floral skirt and white tank top where the hem brushed along the waistband of her skirt.

If she moved, I’d see a sliver of skin across her stomach, and she wasn’t only cute but dangerous.

Her blonde hair was platinum, highlighted, and it swayed back and forth behind her shoulders as she followed the hostess toward the room.

I was on my feet, next to the table, when Elisia, the same woman I’d spoken with earlier and the one who showed me to our table guided her into the room.

“Hailey?”

She turned to face me and sucked the breath straight from my chest. Holy fucking shit, she was perfect. Cute, yes. Too damn cute for me, but the rest of her made my blood sing with excitement.

She was everything I would have listed if I had gone to Meredith to find someone I actually wanted and not needed.

Her smile trembled. “That’s me.”

A cute little shoulder shrug and my earlier thought was correct. That sliver of skin appeared and vanished, revealing my worst nightmares.

Tanned, toned skin. I was slow to raise my eyes from the flash of flesh to meet Hailey’s eyes, and when I finally managed, a deep pink color darkened her cheeks.

“Dawson.” I finally managed to remember my name and that I did have actual access to a vocabulary. “Thanks for being willing to meet me tonight.” I gestured toward the table already set for us. “Sit?”

She hesitated before entering the room, but once she breached the doorway, her steps elongated, turned more confident. I pulled out a chair for her across from me.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she fell into it and adjusted it so she was comfortable.

Now all I needed was to keep sweat from beading at my temples and my palms from going clammy again.

This was awkward. Everything about sitting across the table from a woman who I was immediately attracted to and actually didn’t want to be was why I was here.

“Would you like something to drink?”

There was a carafe of ice water on the table, along with both a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white in an ice bucket.

Hailey scanned the room, darkened, but not overly so, and let out a nervous chuckle. “I can’t believe you reserved an entire room for this.”

I would have rented the entire restaurant if I could have. “I thought privacy would be better.”

Her fingers drummed on the edge of the table. “Why?”

She tilted her head to one side, and her shimmering curtain of platinum hair fell over her shoulder.

“Why privacy?”

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